Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 June 15

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June 15

International Cricket Council non-members yet british colonies

How come Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Yemen are not members of ICC and yet they are former colonies of UK? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.31.19.39 (talk) 00:28, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Do they play cricket in those countries? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:45, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Less than ideal climate for creating cricket pitches? HiLo48 (talk) 01:55, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Probably don't have the balls for it. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 02:25, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Bats, though. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:37, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

It should be noted that the above, strictly speaking, were not British colonies in the sense that there were almost zero British colonists that ended up in the above nations. They were all British protectorates which Britain took control of as the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating. The relationship between those protectorates is very different than other British controlled territories like Australia, South Africa, or the Carribean states, in the sense that in those places, there were actually British people moving there, taking their culture (and their Cricket) with them. In Egypt or Somalia, there weren't enough British people for anyone to take an interest in Cricket. --Jayron32 03:16, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

It's my understanding that British soldiers and administrators never accounted for more than 100,000 people in India, did they? μηδείς (talk) 03:36, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

That sounds like enough to generate an interest in cricket. I would be shocked if there were ever more than a few hundred to a few thousnd British nationals resident in the above countries. --Jayron32 03:47, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

But pay attention to ratios. Compare the current over-1,000 million population of India with the under 3 million population of Jamaica. Brit were never more than 1/100th of one pecrent of the Indian population. μηδείς (talk) 04:30, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

But more than enough to run the country and instill many of their ways and customs. The Indians' obsession for cricket did not just arise out of nowhere. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 04:51, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Well, exactly. Jayron's the one arguing more than 1/100th of 1 percent is necessary. I provided the counterexample, didn't I? μηδείς (talk) 05:07, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

No, I'm arguing that there were enough British people in India to develop cricket. There were essentially no British people in Somalia or Iraq during the protectorate years. --Jayron32 05:14, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

BTW, couldn't the need for a lawn be relevant? μηδείς (talk) 16:49, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Not necessarily, wickets can be made of rush matting or concrete even - or grown in another country and flown in these days. --TammyMoet (talk) 18:26, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Those are possible solutions now, but I think lack of grass might have been a discouragement to a pick-up match a century back. BTW, a few months ago I saw a match being played in a large grass-covered dry discharge pond in NJ by what looked like a crowd entirely of Indians. That is not something you would have seen in that area30 years ago or even a decade. μηδείς (talk) 18:45, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Maybe they simply tried it and didn't like it. It was supplanted by baseball in the USA, and for another comparison, folks have been pushing soccer in America for decades, and there still isn't all that much interest in it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:28, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

My friends and I loved soccer. We just added rules that allowed you to pick up, run with, and throw the ball, and tackle and punch other players. μηδείς (talk) 00:21, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

You don't need grass to play cricket HiLo48 (talk) 08:01, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Not to mention [1], [2], [3], [4] -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 08:12, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

I would guess that, of those countries, Egypt probably had the largest ex-pat population. There's some history of cricket in Egypt, and its post-WWII decline, in the Egypt national cricket team article. Warofdreams talk 09:54, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

I think you have to play cricket of certain quality to qualify for ICC membership. Countries like Afghanistan have ICC membership without being British colonies.Virtualpractice (talk) 12:04, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Arch-enemy of Spider-Man

Is the perception that the Green Goblin is the arch-enemy of Spider-Man only a result of him being the antagonist in the first movie? --Melab±1 ☎ 02:47, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

No. Watch the vintage cartoons on Netflix if you have it. μηδείς (talk) 03:38, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

If that is the case then would I be right to assume that Venom is probably Spider-Man's ultimate enemy (the distinction is a little hard to describe)? --Melab±1 ☎ 04:10, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Wouldn't the word be alter-ego? I am sure other will know better than I. μηδείς (talk) 04:26, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

How are you defining "ultimate enemy". You're using very subjective terms here. And what of the articles here have you read? Our Green Goblin article makes it clear just in the lead section that his arch-enemy status was established much much earlier than the films with Tobey Maguire. Dismas|^(talk) 04:41, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

I mean ultimate enemy in the sense of being the most "powerful". I have seen some TV shows and some movie series where the protagonist has an arch-enemy but the final opponent is someone else entirely (i.e., Megatron and Unicron in the Unicron trilogy). --Melab±1 ☎ 00:13, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Since he was in the last movie (at least for a few more weeks) he currently is the ultimate villain. After The Amazing Spider-Man is out in theatres, he'll only be the penultimate. :)

Did you read the earliest comics, not just some movies? Spiderman has no arch-enemies as far as I know, but Green Goblin is definitely one of the most "famous" enemies of Spiderman. The first noteworthy were: Vulture, Lizard, Doctor Octopus. Green Goblin came several years, and Venom even much later. Regards.--GoP_T^C_N 19:12, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Spider-man doesn't have a single arch-enemy, but the Green Goblin is about as close as it gets. Only Doc Ock (and later, Venom) come close to taking things to the personal level that the Goblin (in all his manifestations) has. The murder of Gwen Stacy and the Osborn family's closeness to Peter Parker elevate the relationship to a unique level. The only thing that's stopped it from getting to the kind of enmity you see with Superman/Lex Luthor or Batman/Joker is Marvel's apparent decision to make sure it doesn't by introducing - and highlighting - enough other villain characters of sufficient interest. Matt Deres (talk) 00:51, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Bonnie and Clyde Song

A number of years ago I heard a song played on an old record and I haven't been able to track it down again. It was sung by a man and by the style of the song I'd guess it was from the 40s, though I may be mistaken. The song was about Bonnie and Clyde, at least I think so given I remember them being mentioned, though it might have only been referencing them. The main thing I remember is a portion of the chorus, which went:

(I can't recall how the first line goes)

Check your revolver and hide it

Do up your belt and then loosen your tie

Now you can Bonnie and Clyde it

Unfortunately I haven't managed to turn up anything searching for those lyrics. Given I've seen people with similar questions get decent results here, I figured I might as well ask.

Many thanks,

--Martyk7 (talk) 13:55, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

When I googled the phrase "Check your revolver and hide it", I got several copies of the same question reposted over the internet, with the answer being it was the song The Big Black Hat by Rolf Harris (best known as the singer/songwriter for Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport). However, I checked a copy of that song on YouTube (not linked as it's almost certainly a copyright infringement) and it not only doesn't contain the lyrics you posted, it also doesn't seem to have the phrase "Check your revolver and hide it". So obviously, that's not your song, but it does still make me wonder if they just got the name of the song wrong; the queries were about "which song of Rolf Harris is this?" So, if you check the YouTube of that song and think the voice is similar to what you remember, we've at least narrowed it down to a performer. He was a bit of a prolific recording artist, but perhaps it's better than nothing. Alternately, do you think that the first line could have been "Pull your fedora down over your eyes"? Matt Deres (talk) 13:01, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Neither do they appear in The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde by Georgie Fame. Alansplodge (talk) 22:17, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

"Pull your fedora down over your eyes" definitely sounds like it could be right, though I can't be certain. Listening to The Big Black Hat, I don't think it's the same singer. The results of googling the lyrics along with Rolf Harris look to all be derived from a single Yahoo Answers querry, so I don't know how accurate that is. Still though, "Pull your fedora down over your eyes" seems to be the missing line, and it looks like the person who asked the Yahoo Answers question is after the same song I am. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Martyk7 (talk • contribs) 13:04, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Quick update in case anyone ever comes looking for this again. I finally tracked down the old record and figured out what this song is "The Bonnie and Clyde" by The New Vaudeville Band. --Martyk7 (talk) 05:46, 27 December 2012 (UTC)